Jolly Roger
by Beyond Kailani
Summary: Ace, Sabo and Luffy attempt to design their own Jolly Rogers


**Authors Note:** I've been sick the last 10 days and this was the result of my boredom. My apologies for the very unoriginal title, I couldn't think of anything else!

**XXX**

**Jolly Roger **

**XXX**

"Ugh!" Luffy exclaimed, staring at his filthy hands. He quickly wiped them on the back of his shorts before screeching as he caught a couple of blisters. He flapped his hands wildly and jumped around on the spot.

Ace snorted at the display, rolling his eyes at the theatrics of his little brother.

"You alright there, Lu?" Sabo asked, grinning as Luffy continue to hop around.

"My hands hurt!" Luffy cried, finally stopping long enough to show Sabo the damage.

Ace shrugged. "Well, what do you expect? Building a secret base was never going to be easy," he told the pair.

"We've made good progress though," Sabo said proudly.

All three boys looked up into the canopy where there secret base was finally beginning to resemble a small structure. They had finally completed the floor and walls. All that remained was to finish the roof.

"Where should we fly the flag from?" Ace suddenly asked, studying their new home. "We're never going to be pirates if we don't have a Jolly Roger."

"We could always build a crows nest in the upper branches. I think we'll have enough left over wood for a small one. We could fly a flag from up there easily," Sabo suggested, pointing to a y-shaped fork in the tree branches about five meters above where the roof would eventually be.

"How's the flag design coming?" Ace asked Sabo, who had been put in charge of designing and creating their Jolly Roger.

Drawing had never been Ace's strong suit, never having had a need to learn. Dadan had adamantly claimed her teaching duties were over as soon as he could read and spell his own name. Sabo had taught him the rest in between looting Gray Terminal when days were particularly slow.

Luffy was marginally luckier, having both the Mayor and Makino to teach him the basics of reading and writing but his skills with a paintbrush have proved worse than Ace, which Sabo hadn't believed possible until he saw the results with his own eyes.

It had quickly been agreed that Sabo was to be responsible for any painting and whilst he was no artist he was capable enough to do a simple design.

"Why don't you take a look?" Sabo asked, walking over to the small hollow they had taken to sheltering in whilst they completed their new home. "I need you guys to tell me what colour you want your letter to be. I managed to find blue, red and yellow paint the other day."

Sabo dragged out the black material and draped it over the large tree route before diving back in for the small tins of paint he had been lucky enough to find.

"Hey, why is my letter last?" Luffy asked, indignant.

"Because you're youngest," Ace said promptly moving to examine the paints. "I think I can guess what colour Sabo wants," he said, looking his brother up and down with a grin. Sabo chortled. It was pretty clear what his favourite colour was just from looking at his attire.

"I want red! Shanks is captain of the Red Hair Pirates so I want to match him!" Luffy declared loudly, lunging for the appropriate tin only for Ace to slap his hands away with a scowl.

"I'm having red," Ace said.

"Why?" Luffy whined, trying to make a grab for the tin but he was blocked by Ace every time.

"The only other colour an ace card is in a playing deck is black and I can't have a black letter on a black background," Ace grumbled. Sabo nodded at that logic. It was no secret Ace had already decided he was calling his own crew the Spade Pirates.

Luffy pouted and crossed his arms unhappily eyeing the tin of red in Ace's hands.

"Hey, Luffy. Shanks gave you his straw hat which is yellow, so don't you want that instead?" Sabo asked, quickly trying to find a way to divert Luffy's attention before a squabble could break out.

Luffy's face lit up. "I didn't think of that! Yay, I want yellow!"

Ace rolled his eyes and handed over the tins to Sabo so he could get to work.

"Hey, what's this?" Luffy queried, pulling at a small piece of black fabric and waiving it wildly to unravel it. A crossbones with a 'S' stood out proudly on the material.

"Oh, I had some spare material so I decided to make my personal Jolly Roger," Sabo shrugged, turning back to his task at hand. "I'm not sure if I like it yet or not."

"Well it's not like you'll need to use it anytime soon," Ace reasoned. "You've got plenty of time to fix it. Um, do you think you can make me one?" he asked quietly, surprising both of his brothers. Ace didn't normally ask anyone for anything.

Sabo grinned. "Sure, there's more than enough material."

"Ooh, me too!" Luffy cried, jumping onto Sabo's back and nearly making him draw a red line directly up the middle of their ASL flag.

"Okay, okay, just mind the paint!" Sabo shrugged off his brother easily. "Do you have any idea of what you want?"

"Ace of Spades," the freckled boy said.

"Surprise me!" Luffy laughed.

Sabo sighed heavily as the pair wandered away, content to let their brother handle things.

**xxx**

"And, done!" Sabo cried, stepping back to admire his handwork. Ace and Luffy immediately pressed in on him two sides and stared at the two extra flags Sabo had been due diligently working on since they finally completed their secret base a couple of days ago. His other masterpiece was now waiving proudly from the crows nest high above them.

"What do you think?" he asked the pair, slightly nervous. The flags weren't extravagant by any means but they could well be the basis for his brother's future pirate symbols and he wanted to do them proud.

"I love it!" Luffy cried, happily hugging Sabo tightly, unable to remove his eyes from the Jolly Roger. Sabo grinned, pleased. He had decided to go for the obvious choice for Luffy and focused on his treasured straw hat which was proudly worn atop a grinning skull and cross bones.

"Shanks won't be able to mistake that for anyone else but you," Sabo told the rubber boy, patting his head lightly. Luffy laughed.

"It looks sort of incomplete," Ace said muttered, quickly glancing at Luffy's more detailed flag and back to his own which was simple spade with a skull and cross bones on the black material.

"Well, they're only ideas for you to use. You can add to it later," Sabo defended. "Maybe you can get your own signature hat and add that to skull," he suggested.

Ace nodded in consideration before being distracted by a jubilant Luffy jumping at him and telling him not to be ungrateful to Sabo and to thank him.

The blond chuckled as Ace loudly wrestled Luffy off and began chasing him around the small clearing, claiming little brothers shouldn't lecture their big brothers. Sabo cast a final glance at the two new pirate flags before deciding to join his brothers in their play fight. They had all the time in the world to finish the flags later.

**XXX**

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